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More than 120,000 men, women and children are awaiting organ transplants in the United States, as of October of this year. (For specific numbers go to www.unos.org.)

Just under 68,000 are comprised of various minority populations.

Just under 2,000 are children and youths 18 and younger.

A total of 28,052 organ transplants were performed in 2012.

There were 14,013 organ donors in 2012.

More than 46,000 corneas were transplanted in 2012.

More than 1 million tissue transplants are done each year; the surgical need for tissue has been steadily rising.

— Source: Donate Life

The Donate Life float in the Rose Parade is perhaps the most emotionally moving entry in the event. Organ, eye and tissue donors and recipients will be riding on and walking alongside the float, proving that this gift changes not only a person’s life, but the lives of many around them.

Donate Life America is a coalition of national organizations and state teams that work to increase organ, eye and tissue donation by educating people and motivating them to register as donors. It has had a float in the Rose Parade since 2004 as a visible part of its awareness campaign. Each year a list of recipients and donors are selected to participate in the parade. Meet a few of those people for whom this year’s theme, “Dreams Come True,” is a reality.

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Anna Maria Villalobos

Whittier resident Anna Maria Villalobos knows pain. She has suffered with rheumatoid arthritis since she was in her 20s and it eventually destroyed the cartilage in her hips, causing bone to rub on bone. Her knees were deteriorated as well, so walking became a chore.

Between 2002 and 2011, Villalobos had her hips and knees replaced, aided by bone and tissue donations. Now, at age 58, she is on the go.

“I almost can run. I walk a lot and before, I could hardly take a few steps. Now I can walk everywhere,” Villalobos said in Spanish through interpreter Elena de la Cruz of Donate Life America.

Villalobos is moved to tears as she states how tissue donation can give people a better quality of life and how thankful she is to her donors.

Today, she is a volunteer for OneLegacy, an organ, eye and tissue recovery organization based in Los Angeles that has coordinated the building of the Donate Life float by Phoenix Decorating Co.

“My dream is to be on the float. I still cannot believe that I’m riding on the float,” Villalobos said.

Riding the float for Villalobos is not only an honor for herself, but a way to honor her son, Moises Barrios, who in his early 30s was diagnosed with kidney failure.

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Starting in 2003 Barrios was on dialysis for nine years. He received a kidney transplant, but died a year later. Villalobos will be holding his photograph on New Year’s Day.

“He is the motor that keeps me going and promoting organ and tissue donation,” Villalobos said.

Sharon Runner

Recipients come from all backgrounds of life. Sharon Runner, 59, of Sacramento is a former state senator and assembly member representing the Lancaster, Palmdale and Antelope Valley areas. She is also on the Sierra Donor Services Advisory Board and the legislative committee for the Scleroderma Foundation.

At age 30, Runner was diagnosed with CREST syndrome, a form of systemic sclerosis. She did well until age 52, when she began to have breathing issues, first while hiking and not too much later, climbing stairs. A pulmonary function test showed that Runner had lost 60 percent of her lung capacity. She spent five years on the lung transplant list, working despite her health as she waited.

“I wasn’t very qualified for getting lungs because if you can still work and participate and do all the things you do and still survive, there’s a fine line between needing them and being too sick to get them,” Runner said.

It was will that kept Runner going and when she received new lungs, she realized how poor her lung function had been. But it wasn’t all roses. After recovering from surgery, she returned to the hospital with fluid around her heart. There she died and was resuscitated. The doctors put Runner into a coma so she could heal. She woke up on Mother’s Day, her family gathered around her, and she was unaware of what had happened.

“I’m blessed that I can continue to live and spend each day doing what I feel is important,” Runner said.

Runner lives her life to the fullest, enjoying time with her husband, their kids and grandkids. She has also become involved working to promote organ donor awareness and services, including aiding in legislation to allow people to sign up to be donors when they get their driver’s licenses and pushing for the creation of a Donate Life license plate.

“You save so many lives. Sometimes up to 50 people can use somebody’s organs, tissues, skin, eyes, corneas, ears ... it’s just amazing how many people one life can save,” Runner said.

“A dream come true is that I can even be here to ride on the float. I was so humbled being asked to do that and represent the many donor families that are out there living today.”

John Cervantes

John Cervantes, 46, of Chino had problems with his kidneys almost his entire life, but they didn’t stop him from pursuing his dream of becoming a police officer. Still, there have been many bumps in the road.

In 1992 Cervantes was experiencing one of his many bouts of kidney stones and was given medicine to dissolve them. One of the side effects of the treatment was kidney failure, and his right kidney stopped working. Cervantes eventually stabilized, but after a severe infection in 2009 he was placed on dialysis and advised to look into transplant options. His brother, Michael Cervantes, had previously stated he would give him a kidney and was still open to the idea. “All along, my brother said, ‘If you need a kidney, it’s going to come from me.’ He made the decision,” Cervantes said.

In March of this year he had the transplant and he said the change was “amazing.” Since 1992 Cervantes had been suffering from headaches and fatigue, which increased as his kidney function decreased. He never gave in to his pain and continued to work and do the things he needed to do to provide for his family

“It was God’s grace, nothing of my own. It was through faith in the Lord and prayer that he could keep me going,” Cervantes said.

“(The transplant) is a dream come true. For 20-plus years I’ve been struggling and always wondering when is that day going to come (when I have to start dialysis),” Cervantes said. “It gave me a second chance at life. On March 11, I received a fresh start. I could do everything I was doing and even more.”

Craig Hostert

At 55, Craig Hostert, a Fullerton resident and CFO of Parkwest General Contractors, is all about change, especially if it spurs you to do something for others. Hostert had an autoimmune disease when he got married in 1984. He became ill shortly after the wedding, and went to a series of doctors until finally one decided to do a kidney biopsy.

In 1996, Hostert started dialysis and waited for a transplant opportunity. His older brother was a perfect match, but was rejected as a donor due to his borderline high blood pressure. Hostert’s wife, Kathleen, tested and matched. Her kidney lasted 14 years in Hostert and then stopped working suddenly, so he found himself on dialysis again. His son, Justin, then a senior in college, offered to help.

“It’s a lot more complicated than just saying that (I want to donate) — there has to be all kinds of biological and physiological matches that happen before someone can give you a kidney,” Hostert recalls telling his son.

But father and son matched and the transplant was done laparoscopically.

“The first time around, it changed my life in the way that Kathleen and I felt that this was our calling to do something about it, so we started the walk,” Hostert said.

Wanting to give something back in appreciation of all he received, Hostert sought the right cause, but it was Kathleen who took the reins and spent seven months planning a walk.

The Donate Life Run/Walk Family Festival was held in 2003; 1,500 people attended and it raised $25,000. Since then it has grown into one of the largest gatherings to promote organ donation in the country. Last year, 12,000 people attended and it raised just under $500,000. The next run/walk is set for April 26 at Cal State Fullerton.

Kathleen Hostert has traded in her teaching career to work for OneLegacy.

“(OneLegacy) always says that we save lives, and I always say they don’t, they save families because an organ transplant doesn’t just change that person’s life, it changes your entire family,” Craig Hostert said. “Your dream is that your kids grow up with a sense of wanting to give back and a sense of purpose, so this whole situation that we’ve been put in has done that.”

Debbie Morgan

Up until 17 years ago, Riverside resident Debbie Morgan lived the wild life.

“I was a party girl. I always said I’m going to quit drinking when I’m 40, but when I got to 40, a week after my birthday party, God intervened in my life,” Morgan said.

It was 1996. Morgan’s husband came home to find her very ill and rushed her to the hospital, where she collapsed and went into a coma in the waiting room. Diagnosed with end-stage liver disease from alcohol-induced cirrhosis, she was in the hospital for nine days.

“I was pretty close to death when I went in,” Morgan said. “When I got out, my desire to drink had left me. I always say it was a blessing because it changed my life and got me back on the right track. I was able to appreciate so many things.”

Morgan had to attend Alcoholics Anonymous for a year before she could be referred for a liver transplant. Once on the list, she had regular scans and a spot was discovered on her liver, but it took nearly two years to confirm it was a cancerous tumor. In March 2008, Morgan had a liver transplant.

Morgan’s first brush with the possibility of death had spurred her into action. Throughout her illness, she got involved with and ran several support groups including an Alcoholics Anonymous group for transplant patients at Riverside Community Hospital. She went on to become involved with OneLegacy and the United Organ Transplant Association, which offers support group meetings in the Inland Empire and High Desert, as well as provides education, emotional support and assistance with social services for post-organ-transplant patients. She also became an ambassador for Donate Life.

“Growing up, I was always the shy one, but now that I had a passion, you couldn’t shut me up. I was out speaking at events and helping leading the support groups,” Morgan said.

Morgan, an accountant, is now the president of United Organ Transplant Association and a regional lead for OneLegacy. In addition, she serves as the president of Team SoCal Transplant Games, a national Olympic style competition for recipients, living donors and their families that is held every two years. The next gathering is in Houston in 2014.

Morgan states that one organ donor can help eight people and a tissue donation helps as many as 50 people. She finds that many donor families are very passionate about their loved one’s gifts.

“You’re saving so many lives,” Morgan said. “The donor families, when their loved one is passing away, it gives a reason and helps them to heal. There was a purpose for their loved ones, to be able to save so many lives or help so many people.”

Morgan’s wild-child energy has been replaced with an appreciation for life and a devotion to reach out to others.

“The biggest dream is to be able to get a second chance at life and so I got that,” Morgan said. “When you’re that close to death and someone is so generous to give you their loved one’s organs when they’re going through such a tragedy and to save someone’s life, it’s a dream come true for me. It took a while for me to need my transplant, but when I did need it, it was there for me.”

Karen Willis

Living donors are often relatives, spouses and close friends, but there are those who give to complete strangers. Karen Willis of Northridge, a married financial consultant with two daughters, gave one of her kidneys to someone she had never met.

“It was on my bucket list to do something great, something substantial for someone else that I didn’t know. A pay-it-forward kind of giving,” Willis said.

For many years, Willis had been looking to do something meaningful. She had always been healthy, so she decided to help someone else get healthy. Researching online led Willis to the idea of kidney donation.

“One of the reasons I liked giving a kidney was that it was health related, but more important was the idea of ‘The Chain,’ ” Willis said.

The Chain is the name given to a linked series of donors and recipients. If a person ill with kidney disease knows of a healthy person who is not a match, but willing to donate on their behalf, they can sign up as a pair with an organization, such as the National Kidney Registry. From there, the two will be matched with other donors and recipients as needed, creating a transplant chain. When an altruistic donor appears, a chain is created and as many as 60 people can be helped.

Willis’ donation approval took a year and during this time she had a multitude of tests, revealing she had gallstones. She had to have gallbladder surgery before giving her kidney, but it was a blessing in disguise because her gallbladder was so infected it could have burst at any moment.

In July 2012, Willis finally gave away her kidney. She had a little fear about the procedure, but she was healthy and underwent a lot of testing. She also met with a social worker and psychologist.

“I was determined to do this and I knew that I would be fine. The chances of something going wrong, although they existed, were very, very small. The chances of me helping this person were very high,” Willis said. “If I wasn’t part of The Chain, I probably would have changed my life very little.”

But in addition to continuing on with her life, Willis has a new friend. After the surgery, she met her recipient, Joe Felix. He also has two daughters and, because of Willis, more energy to do things with them. Felix and Willis chat every few months, catching up on the events in their lives.

As for The Chain, Felix’s ex-wife gave a kidney on his behalf to a man in need in Boston, whose wife donated her kidney to someone else.

“If you can help someone fulfill their dream, you are going to get as much back as the person that you helped,” Willis said. “And if you can give someone their health, there’s nothing better.

“I’m generally a very private person; this is the only public thing I’ve done because if I can get one person to make a donation and another person is helped, that would be my dream.”

“The Chain,” a documentary about Willis, her gift and the people whose lives it changed, can be seen on YouTube.